Walking the Thin Blue Line

By Larry D Tate

Walking the Thin Blue Line is a peek into the life of a young black man who grew up in the hostile streets of South-Central Los Angeles. He chose to spend 15 years as a Los Angeles Police Officer in an effort to change the perception of police officers in his community. His career was cut short when he was faced with the decision - stand with the department in a corrupt Officer Involved Shooting Cover-up or stand with the victim and tell the truth regarding the shooting.

Despite paying a heavy price for his decision. Former Sergeant Larry Tate believes the police profession is a noble profession badly in need of reform. He is both pro-police and pro-community. He believes there can be reconciliation between police and communities of color if both are willing to admit their faults and look for ways to improve their relationship.

The events you read about in this book are true. Hopefully, after reading this book you will have a better understanding of the many dangers and challenges police officers face daily.

Unfortunately, police officers find themselves in a position where if they step off the thin blue line, they are killed or injured, or face the possibility of being fired and in some cases sent to prison.

The Thin Blue Line has become a "Tightrope"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662452697

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Walking the Thin Blue Line

Larry D Tate

Copyright © 2022 Larry D. Tate

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-6624-5268-0 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-5269-7 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Brother from the Hood

Test the Lie or Testify

The Request

Staring Down the Barrel of a Gun

Shoot or Don’t Shoot

The Shiny Object

Hiding in the Bushes

Hunter Becomes the Hunted

Carotid Control Hold

Menace to Society

Felony Glance

Honor Your Parents

School Burglary

Eagle Eye

Spirit of the Law

A Mother’s Love

In the Lion’s Den

Division Foul Play or Racism

The Toy Gun

Operation Cul-de-Sac

The Frame

Planting Dope

The Big Secret

Don’t Become a Statistic!

Collateral Damage from the Rodney King Incident

Clear My Name

Police Reform and Reconciliation

Preface

The purpose of this book is to give people a peek into the world of a street cop. It was my world for fifteen years.

Law enforcement officers are heroes, but they are also human. My father used to say that wherever there is human concern, there will be mistakes.

Law enforcement officers should be given the latitude to make innocent mistakes. I believe most officers understand that mistakes have consequences. Officers should also understand and take seriously the realization that they have enormous power. Officers have the power of life and death. Unfortunately, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Every officer must constantly remind themselves that with power comes responsibility.

Police officers must understand that the exercise of power is the fastest-acting intoxicant known to man: You can get drunk before you know it.

Police officers should know it takes a short time to learn to exercise power but a lifetime to learn how to avoid abusing it.

Police reform and reconciliation starts with officers realizing change begins with them. Hopefully, something in the book will cause the reader to have a better understanding of why we are where we are today and create a path for getting to the point where we have a better understanding as to how the police and the community can develop mutual respect and trust for each other.

Officers should possess these three characteristics: courage, compassion, and common sense. Underlining those characteristics should be trustworthiness, honesty, and the willingness to do the right thing regardless of the consequences.

Law enforcement officers must be held to a higher standard than the average citizen. They should also know that the oath they take is to the communities they serve, not the departments that employ them.

These short stories are true events that happened to me during my decade and a half working the streets of Los Angeles.

I had a great career. I worked narcotics, vice, detectives, and patrol. I worked all the busy divisions in Los Angeles—Southwest, Seventy-Seventh, Southeast, Harbor, and Newton. I feel confident in saying I saw more action in fifteen years than many officers see in twenty or thirty years working in slower communities. Having said that, I have the greatest respect for officers in smaller, less-busy communities because all the incidents that you will read in this book can happen in any community. Officers who work in smaller communities many times don’t have immediate backup available, which makes their duties far more dangerous.

It was my great honor to work the streets where I grew up and serve the communities that need police far more than more affluent communities.

I know my survival is due to my parents’ prayers and my great training officers, two of whom died in the line of duty.

Communities should honor those who walk the tightrope of the thin blue line every day to keep you safe, and officers should always strive to do the right thing.

Brother from the Hood

I was born in El Paso, Texas. I’m the middle child. My older brother is retired now. My younger brother is a successful lawyer in Arizona.

My mother and father were both born in Mississippi. They are both Afro-Americans. They grew up in poverty.

They grew up during the Jim Crow era.

Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. These laws were enacted in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by white Southern Democrat-dominated state legislatures to disenfranchise and remove political and economic gains made by Black people during the Reconstruction period. The Republican Party lily-white movement supported the exclusion of African Americans. The Jim Crow laws were enforced until 1965.

At the age of eighteen years, my father enlisted in the US Army. He fought in both the Second World War and Korean Conflict.

It was while he was deployed in Korea that he wrote his sister who was attending Jackson State College and asked her to have some of her girlfriends write him. My mother was one of those girls. She was also attending Jackson State College.

Upon returning from Korea on his thirty-day leave, he met and married my mother.

Both my parents were religious people. We grew up in the church. My mother was always telling us to treat people the way you want them to treat you.

In 1963, my father retired from the military, and we moved to Bakersfield, California. Most of my fathers’ brothers and sisters lived in California.

In 1966, my father landed a job in Los Angeles, California. Our first apartment was located at Florence Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard. I attended Horace Mann Junior High.

I went from living on military bases, to living in a small town, and then to living in a big city. It was a culture shock. Los Angeles was a survival of the fittest mentality. I remember my first few days at Horace Mann Junior High. I was walking down the hall, and two guys walked up to me and asked if I had lunch money. When I indicated I did, they grabbed me and took my money out of my pocket. This happened for the next two days.

I sometimes